It wasn’t just Senior Night, but it was a battle between two of last year’s Section 9 champions.

The Valley Central Vikings honored their eight seniors and the defending Class AA champions scored two second-half goals to defeat the defending Class B champions, the James I. O’Neill Raiders, 2-0, at Valley Central High School in Montgomery.

“It means a lot to the team,” senior Cailin Swart said. “We’ve put in so much work this year. It just feels great as seniors and it’s a great feeling being celebrated and ending the night with a win is a great time.”
Setteducato agreed.

“I think it’s a great way to end our year here and our whole time here,” she said. “I think we’ve all put a lot of time and effort into this team, and I think it was really nice to come out with a win on our day.”

The Raiders’ top scorer Jael-Marie Guy had an early opportunity to get her team on the board, but her shot sailed over the goal and hit the crossbar of the football goalpost.

The Vikings also had several opportunities but couldn’t get the ball in the net during the first half either. It didn’t help that they were playing on the football field, which isn’t as wide as the soccer field they usually play on.

“We haven’t played on this field much,” Swart said. “It’s our home field, but we usually play on the bigger fields. We were used to playing wider balls but being able to adjust and playing more narrow balls and finding more feet really helped us in the second half.”

It paid off almost immediately.

Three minutes into the second half, a goal by senior Lorena Rivera put the Vikings on the board.

“It just validated everything they’ve been working on,” Valley Central coach Jon Walsh said. “The work was showing that it was coming through. It just put the confidence behind continuing to push and keep going.”
Rivera almost had an opportunity for a second goal after taking a pass in the box from Dayna Scott, but her shot banged off James I. O’Neill goalkeeper C.J. Conkey. Valley Central’s Hannah Stahl was right there to clean it up, giving the Vikings a 2-0 lead with about 26 minutes to go in the game.

Guy had an opportunity, but her shot was saved by Valley Central goalkeeper Val Nielson, filling in for Adrianna Ferraro. She only had to stop two shots.

A team doesn’t beat the Raiders without finding a way to stop Guy. That job fell to Setteducato.

“She was a fast player, but she could use her body like no other,” Setteducato said. “She really bodied everyone off the ball and just being able to keep her in her back and not letting her turn was really the key to stopping her.”

So far, few have been able to stop the Vikings as they’ve won six straight since their 0-0 tie against the Goshen Gladiators on Sept. 17. Both the Warwick Wildcats and Washingtonville Wizards each have seven league wins to the Vikings’ six, but the Vikings have only lost one league game – 2-0 to the Minisink Valley Warriors on Sept. 9.

“I think we have a great chance of clinching that No. 1 seed if we could just pull through the last couple of weeks,” Setteducato said.

After five days off, their next eight days will include league games against the Wizards, Monticello Panthers, Wildcats and Gladiators.

“I feel like we’re in a good spot,” Walsh said. “I feel we haven’t peaked yet. We’re building. Our timing’s coming along nicely, but there’s a lot of work still left to be done. We’ve got a rough road ahead.”